


Sunburnt

by orphan_account



Category: Harley Quinn (Cartoon 2019)
Genre: F/F, Harley IQ is genius level but shes still a dumbass, Harley does too she just doesn't know it, Ivy has a lowkey crush, Ivy is just trying to live her life, Just gals being pals, MAY have 2nd chap, Psycho is still part of team, Sunburn, They chill at the mall, and doing stupid shit, between s1 and s2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2020-07-25
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:54:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25501684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Harley was bored. Incredibly so. So what better to do then to annoy her plant bestie?(Just some cute stupid shit I imagine Ivy and Harley get up to in their off time.)
Relationships: Pamela Isley & Harleen Quinzel, Pamela Isley/Harleen Quinzel
Comments: 6
Kudos: 98





	Sunburnt

Gotham was in absolute chaos. People were being shot, maimed, and killed at alarming rates citywide. Harley should be overjoyed, as this chaos was all _her_ doing. Yet, she was neither overjoyed nor maniac. 

She was incredibly,

“Boreeeddddd,” Harley was draped over the back of the couch, leaning right into Ivy’s ear. Ivy was not too happy with having her ears assaulted with a sound equivalent to that of an airplane engine (or at least, that’s what it felt like).

“Harley, hun, this is the third time in the past twenty-minutes that you have _loudly_ proclaimed that in my ear.” Under her breath, she mumbled, “Each time it gets just slightly more annoying too.”

Harleys close proximity allowed her to hear anyways, “Yeah, it’s less boring to annoy you than to sit and be quiet.”

Vaulting over the couch, Harley thudded down next to Ivy, trying to glance at what she was reading.

“Whatcha readin’?”

Abruptly shutting the book, Ivy glared at Harley, “None of your business.”

Harley whined and changed her tactic to now trying to glance at the books cover.

“Nope.” The book had a cover on it, and so Ivy made no effort to try to block Harleys line-of-sight. Instead, she placed it on the table beside them to get it out of reach of Harley, who was now preparing to vault across Ivy to get it.

“Harley, if you leap across me to get that damn book, so help you I’ll-“ Ivy was then cut off by Harley doing just that. Luckily, the nearby greenery provided enough ample foliage for Ivy to snag Harley on the foot and drag her back to her side of the couch.

Now sulking, Harley sunk down to a hunched position to pout. Ivy had no idea whether it would be a better idea to try to entertain her or let her find a way to entertain herself. Either way, she wished Harley would quit acting petulant.

“Why don’t you go do something with King Shark, or Clayface? Who knows, maybe even _Psycho_ would be more interesting than me?” The second part was very obviously sarcasm, going by Ivy’s tone.

“Mmm, no.”

Ivy sighed, ‘God she’s such a little shit isn’t she.’ Glancing up thru the skylight, Ivy took note that Gotham’s often rainy climate had foregone its usual doom and gloom to shine with sunlight. Then, turning her gaze to Harley who had made a small huffing noise, she wondered if Harley could sunburn with her stark white complexion.

“Okay, since you seem intent on not letting me be in peace, how about an experiment?”

It was obvious Harleys interest had been piqued, “Oooo, what kind of experiment, _Dr._ Isley?”

Harley saying her credentials and last name like that made Ivy’s nether regions tingle, and she wasn’t keen on exploring what exactly that meant for her. Quickly trying to “un-gutter” her brain, Ivy continued the conversation.

“Have you ever been sunburnt, after the whole...acid incident?”

It took Harley a minute to come up with an answer, as she had to sit there and ponder for a second. Ivy waited patiently, gaze resting on her mouth, ‘God, she’s so cute when she’s deep in thought...wait, shit.’ Ivy’s face flashed a look of panic that was covered up when Harley seemed to find an answer.

“..No, I don’t think I have. Gotham doesn’t offer to many chances to get sunburned, that plus Joker never really liked to work during daylight. He wasn’t the healthiest individual now that I think about it.”

“Oh really?” Ivy deadpanned.

Harley chuffed, then got back on topic, “So, how exactly do you want to conduct this, “experiment”?”

“You go outside and attempt to get burned, whilst I stay in here and read.”

“Ivy,” Harley crawled across the small space between them to get directly in Ivy's face, “are you not thinkin' about lab safety!? What if I, say...get _heat stroke_? _and die?!_ ”

“...Harley, sweety-“

“You can read your book outside.”

“Fine.”

——

Once outside and on the rooftop of the mall (they scrounged up some sunscreen in one of the abandoned stores), Harley was trying to decide how to apply the sunscreen to make the “control” group. 

“Harls, just do half your body sun-screened, the other half not.”

“Ive’s, that would make wildly different groups though.”

“Vertically spilt Harls, not horizontally.”

“Oh.” 

Harley, who had the sunscreen in her hand, did not seem too excited to have to apply that much sunscreen on herself, by herself. Deciding to bother the “help” for this experiment, she plopped down on Ivy’s foldable chair she had brought up. 

“Help a girl out?” Ivy glanced up from her book, to peer through her sunglasses and see Harley holding out the lotion. 

Sighing, Ivy got up and motioned to Harley to stand as well. After taking the sunscreen from Harley's outstretched hand, and motioning for her to turn around, she began applying it to half of Harleys back.

“Damn..” the astonished sounding utterance was soft, Harley wrote it off as the wind (despite it being a rather un-windy day), but Ivy knew better. She was internally mortified. ‘Did I just say that out loud? About her back muscles!? Holy shit get it together.’ 

Somehow, Ivy refrained from further embarrassing herself by making another brazen comment (out loud at least) when she got to Harley's leg. Then, realizing that Harley could very easily do her legs, she stopped.

“Alright Harls, I did your back. You do the rest.” Returning to her chair Ivy plopped down, and immediately began reading again, trying to get her mind off of Harleys back as fast as possible.

Harley, looking less than pleased at having been abandoned to do the rest of the work, threw herself down and sloppily applied the rest of the sunscreen to the right half of her body. Ivy glanced up to snort at Harley's subpar job of applying the lotion, which earned her a half-hearted glare from Harley. 

Now, done with all the preparation for the “experiment”, Harley stretched out on her nature-themed towel (that she had stolen from Ivy) to soak up the sun.

It was serene, resting on top of the mall. Both women enjoyed the quiet ambiance of the sounds of Gotham playing out in the background. Ivy found her eyes struggling to remain fixed to the page, as a feeling of tiredness overcame her. Harley seemed to be having the same issue, if her eyes constantly drooping while playing on her phone were of any indication. 

Without realizing it, both succumbed to the drowsiness at around the same time.

——

Harley felt something...wet on her cheek as she came to. Slowly prying her eyes open, she was startled by her current surroundings, ‘Why THE FUCK am I outside!?’ 

Shooting up, Harley glanced around, then immediately calmed down at finally remembering all that happened. Bringing her hand up to dab at whatever was on her cheek, she realized she had been drooling, and some of it had gotten in her hair. ‘Fuck.’

Scanning around for Ivy, she saw her still on the chair, sprawled out. Too lazy to get up and shake her awake, Harley resorted to calling out to her.

“Ive.” No response.

“ _Ive._ ” Still no response. 

Cupping her hands to her mouth, Harley let out one last “ _IVY,_ ” which seemed to do the trick. Finally, Ivy stirred...

Only to turn around and mumble out “Five more minutes.” 

Harley shrugged, she didn’t really want to move either anyways. Her right side felt a little touchy. So, she scrounged up her phone and started scrolling through Instagram. After five minutes, and soon a few more, Harley began to grow more and more restless.

Finally, the restlessness overpowered her prior reluctance to getting up, and so she languidly lifted herself up. She stopped multiple times to stretch a few muscles; sleeping on a towel was not the best for back support.

Once up, Harley lumbered over to Ivy. Glancing down at her, she could see Ivy was already half asleep again. Rolling her eyes at Ivy’s quick pace to get back to sleep, she grabbed hold of Ivy’s shoulder and shook her violently.

“OH FUCK!” Ivy immediately jumped up, scrambling to get her bearings. “Where’re the intruders at? I can feel some plants about a meter or two to my left so if they co-“

Harleys guffawing alerted Ivy to the fact that she may have overreacted and there was no danger. Huffing, Ivy turned to Harley; who was now struggling for air, to glare at her.

“I just, HAHAHA... _wheeze_...” Harley started to move her right arm to slap it on her knee but winced upon trying to do so. This immediately stopped her laughter, as she was now trying to figure out why it hurt her to move her arm so much. Ivy noticed the sudden change in mood. She didn’t know what the cause was, so she stood there for a moment before awkwardly speaking up. 

“Uhhh...Harls? You good?” Ivy prodded over to Harley, joining her in examining the skin on her arm. Both were able to gleam nothing from staring at it; the night sky offered very little light in Gotham. Ivy made a small “hmm” noise, before lightly glancing the arm with her fingers.

Harley immediately flinched away letting out a few expletives as she staggered back. Glaring at the offending party, Harley flipped Ivy off. Ivy took it in stride, merely shaking her head and choosing to not acknowledge it. 

“We should head inside. Gangs probably wondering where you’re off to.”

“Yeah, good idea..” Harley set off to pick up her towel, “we should do this again sometime.” 

“What? Sit on the roof and sleep?”

“Heh, no, I meant...just hang?” Ivy didn’t seem to get where exactly Harley was coming from; her facial expression twisting up as she folded up her chair.

“...”Just hanging”, as opposed to just...?” 

“No no,” Harley went to set the now-folded towel on her right shoulder, but hissed and switched shoulders, “we never just have _US_ time. It’s always me, you, Frank. Or me, you, and the gang. Or if it IS just me an’ you, we are always out _doing something_.”

Ivy still wasn’t catching on, now staring at Harley with a quirked brow and the chair dangling off her forearm.

“Hng, shit, I guess..uhh, what I’m trying to say is, I just want to hang with you to hang. Just bask in your company..and shit.” Harley was shy in the delivery, somehow that sentence had felt a lot more intimate than she intended. 

Ivy didn’t know how to react, it was rare that Harley was anything but abrasive and loud. The tenderness of the moment threw her way out of her comfort zone, so she dealt with it the same way she dealt with most things emotional. She completely fucking ignored it.

“Uh-huh,” Ivy deadpanned as she began walking towards the stairwell, “you may have sun poisoning.”

“What?!” 

Harley scrambled to catch up to Ivy, squawking about “surely not having sun poisoning” along the way. She noticed the sudden change in conversation but didn’t wish to confront it and push Ivy’s boundaries. She was already on somewhat thin ice for the months of emotional neglect.

Ivy was already back into the mall by the time Harley caught up. 

“-there is just no way I have sun poisoning! I don’t think my skin CAN even react with the sun!”

Harley had practically cornered Ivy in the storage closet- standing in the doorway preaching animatedly about Ivy’s earlier comment still. Ivy ignored her as she was setting her chair back, and also while she grabbed the towel from Harley's shoulder to store it.

While reaching for the nature-themed towel, Ivy’s sight was drawn to the movement of Harley's right shoulder- which was now much more visible then it had been outside. Pausing, Ivy let out a low laugh when she realized why her best friend had been so touchy earlier.

“Harley, sweety, you’re burned to a _crisp_.”

That stopped Harley mid-sentence, “What? No way.”

“Yeah, look,” Ivy gestured to her right shoulder, which closely resembles the color of a lobster now.

“Oh. That’s probably gonna hurt tomorrow.”

“Yeah...” Ivy signed, she could already tell tomorrow she was going to have to take care of Harley. “You want aloe to put on it?”

“Pshh, no. I’ll be fine.”

“Harls.” Harley went to again reassure Ivy she’d be fine but stopped for a second to think about actually taking the advice for once.

“I’ll be fineeee..” Which she quickly decided she wasn’t.

Ivy pinched her nose and let out a small defeated “Jesus,” before giving up and shooing Harley out of the doorway.

Walking towards her room, Ivy called out, “Alright.. just don’t come and complain to me tomorrow morning when it hurts like hell.”

“I won’t, because it won’t hurt like hell.” Harley immediately yelled back, still standing outside the storage room door.

——

Harley was _so_ sure that she was a grown woman, who could handle the pain of one measly sunburn. Well, that’s what she said last night anyways. Now, she was currently debating reaching under her pillow- where her gun was at of course, what self-respecting villain wouldn’t keep one close, and ending it all.

She heard movement outside her door, judging from the whistling it was Psycho. Harley debated calling out to him but came to the decision he wasn’t one to be sympathetic to her case.

Waiting minutes after Psychos passing, Harley grew more and more fearful that no one was going to pass by again. Her left side seemed okay, so if worst came to worst she could painfully shuffle out of bed and function solely using her left side. 

Even more minutes pass with no signs of anyone else showing up, and with no idea of how much time _actually_ passed (Harley felt like it had been hours), she decided it was time to suck it up and soldier through the pain. 

Gently easing out of bed, Harley's right side screamed out in protest as her sunburnt skin stretched the slightest bit. It was all going to plan, in tell Harleys left hand slipped while supporting her weight and she reflexively used her right to catch herself before falling.

The scream she let out was impressive, sounding loud and startling even Harley herself. She rapidly threw herself back down on her back; letting out a loud stream of curses as she did so. 

——

The crew in the other room were tidying up. It was Ivy’s imposed monthly cleaning day, and even Psycho liked (feared?) Ivy enough to humor her and help out. It was going smoothly, for the most part, the only thing not according to plan being Psycho showing up late again. 

While cleaning off a smudge on the TV, Ivy was a nose length away from its screen. Vigorously scrubbing and muttering “Damn it Harley,” Ivy was relaxed and off guard.

Which is why, when a certain someone let out an ear-piercing scream, Ivy panicked and called all plants in a five-mile radius to her side. Quickly glancing around, Ivy attempted to spot any intruders or lurking assassins. The crew seemed to be doing the same, casting glances in every corner.

No noise was heard. The crew having almost stopped breathing entirely to better hear around them. After waiting and ruling out any immediate dangers, Ivy broke the spell of silence by gasping out “Harley.” Everyone seemed to reach the consensus that they needed to locate their teammate immediately, and all dashed towards Harley's room.

Her door was all the way closed, and when Ivy; leading the charge, crept the door open, they were met with pitch darkness. Afraid of whatever the hell may be in there, holding Harley hostage...or worse, Ivy called out to Psycho to go beam up a flashlight. 

Now armed with a pitifully small flashlight (“What? That’s all we had.”) Ivy called out to Harley and flipped the flashlight on. The light shone on Harley; who was in a fetal position, illuminating her stark paleness.

“HARLS!” Foregoing all caution, Ivy raced in to hover over Harleys fetal from. “Harls?! Who did this to you!?”

Tenderly, Ivy reaches out to stroke Harleys cheek. Harley leaned into the touch and said “Everything hurts,” drawing out the “hurts” and ending it with a whimper. 

This startles Ivy, who had thought Harley was out cold. Looking back at the crew, they all seemed on edge. Someone had done this to their teammate and they were going to pay.

“Harls, who did this to you?” Ivy reiterated.

Harley looked bewildered, “Uhhh..the sun?”

Everyone paused for a moment, taking in what Harley had just said. Ivy let out the longest sigh and pinched her nose. The crew had no idea what to make of this.

“For fucks sake Harley. You had everyone worried you were dead, or were being tortured, or beaten, or I don’t know?! Something more life-threatening than a _sunburn_ ”

At that, Psycho threw his hands up and muttered “woman” on his way out. King shark said “Lobster looked lovely on Harley,” and walked out as well, heading towards the kitchen. And Clayface just applauded the “acting” skills and joined King Shark in walking towards the kitchen.

Harley, noticing how the crew(+Ivy) seemed mildly annoyed with her as they left, voiced “Uhmm, I feel like I should be apologizing for somethin’.” 

“Yeah, probably. You can do that later, right now we need to address those burns,” Ivy had taken it upon herself to get a much closer look at Harleys burns. She originally estimated them as bad first degree burns, but she was beginning to think these were second degree. “I’ll be right back.” Harley hummed her acknowledgment, as she reformed her fetal position and scrunched her face in pain.

Ivy exited the room, dashing towards her own. Slamming open the door, Ivy rushed immediately to some shelves that housed a wide array of plants and plant-related material- a gift from the previous owners of the store. Scanning over the shelves, Ivy was quick in finding a container of aloe gel. Heading back out after grabbing it, Ivy was stopped by Frank calling out to her.

“How’s Lobster doin’?” Ivy did a double-take, confused as to how the hell Frank moved from the living room to her room. Seeming to sense her silent question Frank voiced “Shark moved me.”

“Lo- _Harley_ , is burnt but she’ll live,” turning around to head out, Ivy stopped again, “and how the hell did you know she was burnt?”

“Shark told me.”

“Ah.” After that, Ivy made her way out of the room, almost jogging back to Harleys. Right outside her door though, she realized she should probably medicate her friend up as well. So, turning around, Ivy headed to the kitchen to fetch some meds.

The crew were back cleaning and made various noises of acknowledgment at Ivy as she zigzagged through them to reach the medicine cabinet. The cabinet itself was well hidden, as it stored _multiple_ drugs that were a little less than legal. Which is why Ivy had no trouble in locating a decent amount of morphine, in patch form for convenience. Looking for some Ibuprofen as well, Ivy had to search a little harder, pushing aside bottles of various random meds (Amitriptyline, Aspirin, Tylenol, etc. etc.). 

Once locating a bottle, she filled up a cup of water and made her way back up to Harley's room; slower this time, since she had to balance the stuff she was holding. 

Walking right on in, Ivy saw that Harley had not moved an inch. She was still breathing but didn’t seem to be doing anything besides that. She set everything down of Harleys dresser before proceeding.

“Harls sweety, I’m going to need you to move so I can get to all your burns,“ mumbling out her protest, Harley sluggishly moved to stretch out on her back. “I also brought some stuff to deal with the pain.” Harley perked up at that, opening her eyes and moving her left arm to make a grabby motion.

“Mmm, gimme that shit...” Ivy poured out two pills and went to administer a patch, “did you bring anything for me to take ‘em with?”

“Mhm, some water. That good?” Ivy handed Harley the glass.

“Yep.” Harley quickly took the pills, happy to have any form of release from the ever-persistent pain.

“Alright, I’m going to wait a few for the stuff to kick in before I apply the aloe, I have a feeling it’d sting quite a bit if I were to do it now.” She then turned around, planning on heading back to her room to take care of her plant collection when Harley latched on with her good arm.

“Iveeee, don’t leave me. I’ll get bored, and besides, how’d I tell you when the meds kick in?”

“...you could text me?”

“That still doesn’t solve the boredom problem.” 

Ivy lets out a soft exhale of air, then joins Harley- who looks positively delighted at Ivy’s defeat, on the bed.

——

It didn’t take long for the morphine to kick in, going off of the fact ten minutes after Ivy sitting down, Harley was slurring her words and making very little sense.

“...an’ that’s why...why you gotta, swing with your dominant hand’.” Ivy nodded like she understood, but had the faintest idea of what in the absolute fuck her friend was going on about. Harley then immediately went off about something else, now apparently done with that specific topic.

Deciding the drugs were in full effect at this point, Ivy reached out to touch the burns to see the effectiveness of the drugs. Harley barely reacted to the touch, only wincing and looking mildly betrayed. Before she would’ve most like screamed and jerked away.

Getting up, which led to Harley making noises of protest, Ivy fetched the aloe off the dresser. Applying it to Harley's skin was more time-intensive than expected, as Harley made it a point to not sit still. She wiggled and writhed each time Ivy applied the cooling substance to any point of her skin. Ivy almost considered tying her down with some plants.

“Harls, stop moving for _five fucking seconds_.” 

“But it’s colddddd,” Harley whined.

“That’s the whole point hun.”

“Oh.” 

Despite being loopy with drugs, Harley seemed to understand Ivy’s explanation and ceased her squirming (mostly). The application process sped up immensely after that. Almost the whole bottle of Aloe was used, Harley's skin sucking up the juice at record speeds. Ivy let out a low whistle at how screwed her skin was, commenting “that’s definitely peeling,” under her breathe.

Once finished, Ivy wiped off her hands on Harley, figuring she’s wouldn’t mind in her current state. She seemed to be correct, in till almost out the door Harley let out a loud “Hey!” 

Turning around, expecting to get yelled at for using her friend as a towel, she is met with Harley's glare. 

“You jus’ gonna leave me ‘ere? All alone?” Not expecting this turn of events, Ivy was a little flabbergasted. It took her a moment to speak up in reply.

“..Harley, you don’t need someone to be with you.”

“I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to have someone with you when you do a drug trip. Read it in a book...I think...hmmm,” her eyebrows furrowed as her morphine hampered mind tried to piece together where exactly she had seen that before.

“Harls, that’s for, I don’t know,” Ivy stopped mid-sentence and started laughing at the absolute absurdity of Harley. “I should be recording you right now. The blackmail material would be golden.”

Harley got her wish however, as Ivy made her way back to Harley's bedside. Harley wasted no time in latching on to Ivy and laying her down beside her. Ivy made a small noise of protest as she was being dragged down, but gave up because damn it, ‘Harleys kind of cute when she’s like this’. Even the aloe now all over Ivy’s favorite jacket was forgotten as Harley snuggles herself closer into Ivy.

Reaching out to some plants Harley kept in her room (“Just in case.”) Ivy pulled up a blanket over them, making sure not to cover the sunburns that sat on Harley's shoulders. 

Harley hummed her thanks and drifted off into a drug-induced slumber, Ivy soon drifting off too in the silence, plants be damned.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, obligatory comment or perish <3 (jk, don't feel pressured). Am up for any criticisms you guys may have.


End file.
